PDA

View Full Version : mead and other wines



Freki
11-09-2008, 07:10 PM
Hi,

firstly sorry if this is in the wrong area but I couldn't quite work out where to pop it! It doesn't really fit into survival food.

my question is for those members that (brew?) their own wines / mead. Me and my house mate have recently gotten into the idea of creating our own mead. Partly as the only supermarket in the area has stopped selling it and it's a staple with our meals so we do go through a fair bit! :eek:

The trouble I'm having is all the recipes I've found take months and months (up to 6) now I know it will take a while to ferment the honey / other fruit but before we venture down this path would you say it's worth it? and do you have any advice for a newbie into this field.

The way I see it is if everything does goes get fubar then I want to make sure I can still enjoy some good mead with my meals :D And if it doesn't I've still learnt a cool new skill !

thanks

crashdive123
11-09-2008, 07:14 PM
Freki - here's a thread with some good info on mead. Hope it helps. http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2282&highlight=mead

Freki
11-09-2008, 07:40 PM
cheers :)

*embarrassed* never thought of the search option! sorry it's been a long day lol

thanks anyway, I'm going to go buy the items tomorrow and give it a try.

backtobasics
11-11-2008, 05:02 PM
I've made a little wine, in fact i have some apple wine fermenting as we speak. There's a book called [B]The Alaskan Bootleggers Bible[B] I would suggest getting it. It covers wine, mead, beer, and even wiskey. It is full of great step by step instructions and recipes. It's really no very hard.

Dennis K.
11-11-2008, 05:59 PM
First, understand that mead, beer and wine originally served 2 purposes:
1. Food preservation
2. Water purification

If you imbibe mead daily, and wish to brew your own, there are a coupla issues to consider:

1. Expense. Honey ain't cheap. If you are serious about brewing enough so that you won't need to buy it, you may wish to look into all-grain brewing.
2. Bottling. Each 5 gallon batch, in practice, yields right around 2 cases of 12oz bottles. If you brew once a week, and rotate your stock, you will end up with a heckuvalotta bottles. Storage space will be an issue. You may want to consider a keg system. A bit more of an investment...
3. Laws. Most states regulate how much a person can brew for personal consumption. In TX: "§ 109.21. HOME PRODUCTION OF WINE, ALE, MALT LIQUOR, OR BEER. (a) The head of a family or an unmarried adult may produce for the use of his family or himself not more than 200 gallons of wine, ale, malt liquor, or beer, per year. No license or permit is required."
After that, you need a permit. If not, you can be slapped with various bootlegging criminal laws, tax evasion laws, etc.